MMA Review

It’s time for my MMA Review. Sorry that I didn’t do one last week but I was out of town taking care of family business. But I’m back now and ready to start.

-It’s not a really active week coming up in MMA because no events are coming up. However, it has been a bad week for Elite XC, a new promotion.

If you’re reading this, you’re of course familiar with the promotion that has brought us Gina Carano, Kimbo Slice and other characters. They’ve made an assertive effort to confront the UFC directly and become the top dog in mixed martial arts.

Plans haven’t gone so well.

Fighters are getting tested positive for drugs, the promotion is losing millions and millions of dollars (55 Million to be exact), weakened TV ratings, shakeups in the leadership and many other things. A good detailed breakdown is here if you really want to read about it more: http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/elitexcs-impending-doom-averted-for-now-14140

This isn’t uncommon in sports. There have been countless leagues over the years that have tried to compete with the big professional sports leagues. For every NFL, there’s the XFL, USFL, CFL (when the league tried to expand into the USA in the 90’s). For the NBA, there’s the CBA, Developmental League, ABA and some others. Even sports that have solid followings like auto racing have seen their viewership decline over the last year or two.

The key with all of these organizations is that each of them knew their role and the ones that were stubborn ended. Elite XC should have approached their product slowly and built up their fan base before taking on the UFC, because that’s a battle that you’re going to lose.

I’m not saying that Elite XC shouldn’t exist. In fact, I love all of the different federations besides the UFC. A monopoly is not good for any sport, especially MMA. We need to see as many fighters perform as possible for a diversified product. Furthermore, every fighter has to start somewhere and the lower leagues give these fighters a chance to improve their skills.

-The last UFC event was solid. Brock Lesner is a beast and is a scary, scary dude. I don’t like his taunting, but he does play to a crowd well and brings a much needed personality to the UFC heavyweight division. Him and Cain Valasquez are going to fight for the title in two years, mark my words.

St. Pierre did what he does and made Fitch look like an amateur. Good win by Florian over Huerta as well.

-That’s all for this week. Enjoy MMA Live below.